


Bamboo Skewers

by Katrandom



Series: The Hitman Chronicles [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Hitman!AU, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Original Character(s), Post-Omnic Crisis, but it's not based on the games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-10-13 07:50:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10509477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katrandom/pseuds/Katrandom
Summary: The Hitman Society is a growing force in the world. Since the end of the war hundreds of people have gone missing without a trace. Years later they started turning up again as hitmen for hire.Hitmen 76 and 146 have been granted a way out by a mystery contact and now have to make out of their compound in one piece before they are finally free.Preface to a later reaper76 fic.





	1. Out of the Pot

**Author's Note:**

> This has nothing to do with any existing franchise. I got the idea from a really old tumblr post that I can't find again.

** March 17, 207X – 3:30 am - Society Compound A3 - ???, United States **

Running for his life as soon as his feet hit the ground wasn’t anything new for 76. He’d spent years prior to this point in the military out in the field and surviving the night wasn’t guaranteed in a war zone. Life or death situations early in the morning weren’t a new occurrence.

Trying to keep pace with a born and bred yakuza assassin who had been the one to drag him out of bed, however, was newer. The shorter man had been taken in and partnered with 76 less than a year ago after some incident in Japan. The pair worked perfectly together on the missions they ran as a unit. They were as close to friends as hitmen could get.

Currently he was following his partner through the maze of identical gray corridors that made up the outer edges of the compound they ‘lived’ in and had been for the last twenty minutes. Every couple of minutes they would stop to review the strange tablet 146 had found in his quarters and curse as they tried to figure out where they were.

The search was not going well, not that that was a surprise. The compound was built specifically to keep them in after all.

146 let out another feral growl that was muffled by his mask, “This is ridiculous! We should have found this door ages ago,” he huffed as he glared at the tablet in his hands once they stopped again.

76 crouched next to him to review the map. Sadly, whoever gave 146 the tablet didn’t give them a gps tracker to go with it. Any one of these doors could be the one indicated on the map.

Both hitmen tensed as the sounds of rhythmic foot falls began to echo through the halls. 146 nocked an arrow as 76 swung his pulse rifle down from its holster on his back. They exchanged a look and a nod before pressing themselves as tightly as possible to the wall and waiting for the third patrol they’d seen tonight to pass. Once gone, the pair peeled themselves off the wall.

“This is an impossible task,” 146 spit as he pulled out the tablet once more.

76 sighed and slipped the device out of his partner’s hands. He reviewed the map quietly as 146 began to pace and huff to himself. 76 clicked through the settings on his visor and copied the map into the archive before setting up a marking program to help them keep track of their path. He turned to 146 who was busy glaring a hole into the pristine drywall.

“Set up a program to track old paths. Should help map out the halls to get a better picture of the set up,” 76 mumbled, his voice was rough from disuse.

“Why didn’t you do that earlier?” 146 demanded.

“Didn’t think about it. Still tired. You didn’t give me any warning before you threw my equipment at me and hauled me out of my room.”

“I wasn’t really given any warning either,” 146 hissed. They had both just gotten back from a recent deployment in Canada when 146 had made his grand discovery. A glitchy tablet with map and a sticky note signed by a contact he’d picked up a few months back. The note promised a way out and 146 desperate enough to take it.

The pair began to map the halls, trying to get a better feel for the area before 76 stopped and scrutinized the map. 146 stepped up next to him and reached up to tap the side of 76’s visor. The visor clicked and projected the map they had created onto the wall. 146 held up the tablet and carefully began comparing them.

“You’d think after being here for six years I’d have picked up on this by now,” 76 huffed in amusement as he watched 146 trace the paths with a gloved finger. 146 laughed lightly. They both knew it wasn’t possible for him to have memorized this area. 76’s handlers always kept him strung out on their mystery drugs until they were safely on the transports.

146 gasped before rapidly tapping an area on the map in quick succession, “There. There is the door!”

76 set up a waypoint before breaking into a sprint with 146 trailing after them. They both had their weapons out in case of more guard patrols in the area. The note had said ‘ _the cameras will be out but you can’t hack people… yet ;)_ ’

The pair slid around corners and sprinted through corridors until they skidded to a stop in front of a door identical to all the others. 146 inspected it closely while 76 stood back and watched for guards. The only sound in the hall was from the drag of 146’s gloves on the wooden door.

76 cocked his head and turned once he heard 146 make a small noise of victory before displaying a tiny scrap of paper in the vague shape of a skull that matched the note. 76 glanced up to 146 who had his hand on the door knob.

“You sure about this?” 76 asked, pocketing the scrap.

“No, but we don’t have any other choice. I don’t exactly want to die for the profit of our captors,” he said still facing the door.

“So you’re willing to get yourself gunned down by them? How do you know this isn’t a set-up? How do you know that whoever this person is isn’t trying to get rid two of the best hitmen? How do- “

“Enough! If you do not want to come, then do not! I must leave! I must find my brother!” 146 screamed as he whipped around and aimed his bow at 76’s chest, “You will not stop me!”

76 flinched at the echo in the halls before he glanced down at the arrow pointed at him and holstering his own rifle. He took a step back and motioned at the door.

146 slowly relaxed before facing the door and turning the knob painfully slow. He looked back at 76 before easing the door open a fraction. Both men froze waiting for the alarms to sound. Waiting for guards to come running to shoot them down or worse; reprocess them.

They never came and the halls stayed silent.

The pair stepped into the hanger numbly. The concourse was empty save for the jet that had brought them in earlier. The sound of rain pounding on the metal roof was near deafening as they made their way cautiously across the hangar, weapons drawn and on high alert.

Voices echoed from one of the doors and the two hitmen dove for cover as a single guard stumbled drunkenly from a hall. He was laughing to himself as he teetered to the corner and dropped his pants to take a piss.

76 exchanged looks with 146 who drew his bow and lined up a shot. 76 let out a low whistle through his teeth. The guard turned in time to see the arrow fly and lodge itself into his chest with a dull thud before falling silently into his own mess.

146 stood quickly and grabbed 76 as they ran to the door the man had come out of. The noise suggested the guards where having a grand St. Patrick’s Day party.

The two hitmen snuck soundlessly through the door and into the corner of a massive recreation room that was filled to the brim with very drunk and very dangerous men.

146 snorted in disgust as he crouched behind a massive sofa in the corner and tried to map a way through.

“This is a vulgar display.” 146 hissed as a pair of guards started fighting towards the center of the room.

76 snorted before he rolled behind a buffet a few feet away from them and waited for his partner. He had seen 146 shitfaced enough times to safely call him a hypocrite especially when it came to bar fights. The last assassination they had done had involved a nasty bar fight started by 146 in a high-end strip club so 76 could take out the target without anyone noticing him.

He was glad his mask hid his smile as he recalled watching his partner yell ‘Sake’ like a war cry before picking up a barstool and chucking it into the crowd.

The pair continued to make their way around the room. Ducking behind furniture and crawling swiftly through gaps until they were under the last table that was five feet from the exit.

Just as they were about to make a break for the door a shadow fell across the cloth covering the table. The pair scrabbled backwards until they were tight to the wall. A hand reached under the cloth.

“Rich, you down there?” a voice slurred as the hand drew closer to 76’s foot, “Come on you fucker. Get your ass out here!”

76 grabbed the wandering hand causing the man to let out a startled sound and pulled him under the table. 146 silenced him with a swift blow to the back of his neck.

The pair shot out from under the table and got out the door before anyone could notice the sudden disappearance of one of their coworkers

They sprinted through the halls past the cafeteria were staff was till shuffling around making more food for the party. Had the two men stopped to look, they may have found a small Asian woman working in the kitchen. A once proud soldier turned mindless worker; a rejected hitman.

“We must be getting close,” 146 whispered as they ducked behind a corner to hide from yet another drunk wandering the halls.

76 turned to check the other end of the hall when he spotted something, “Hold on I think I see an office.”

146 turned to find 76 halfway down the hall and picking the lock to a door marked ‘Administration’. Before 146 even got to him 76 was in the room and examining the filing cabinets.

“We don’t have time for this,” 146 groaned even as he started to rifle through the drawers.

The two of them quickly searched the room finding files marked with their numbers and a thumb drive sitting on the desk. Once satisfied they returned to the hall and headed back the wat they’d come.

It took them fifteen minutes of searching before they saw what could only be the exit; a solid wood door guarded by two turrets.

“Shit,” 76 hissed as he brought his rifle up. 146 got into position behind him, nocking a scatter arrow.

“Count of three?”

“Sounds fair.”

146 chuckled as he started the countdown.

1..

2..

3..

Pulse fire rang out from their hall. The carpet and walls burst into flames as the first turret exploded from a precise shot to its power pack. The other swung wildly as it tried to track the hitmen only to get confused by the sudden swarm of arrows ricocheting off the door and walls.

It took another three shots before going out of commission.

The hitmen ran through the blaze to the door were 76 proceeded to ram into it hard enough to break the hinges. They ran hard into the forest before the people inside could figure out what happened.

Rain beaded on 76’s visor as they delved deeper into the tree line. Thunder rolled overhead and lightning flashed bright.

They ran until the trees broke and a highway sat barren. The two men stood heaving for a moment. The world started to spin slightly under 76’s feet but he ignored it for now.

Turning to 146 he asked the question that was burning in his mind.

_“Now what?”_


	2. Into the Fire

146 stood quietly before raising his hand and then lowering it again. He looked down at the mud caked to his boots and then to the road before sighing.

“I have no idea.”

76 snorts as 146 starts to pull at the edge of his mask. He steps around the shorter man to inspect the road.

It looks well used. Tire ruts are carved deep into the concrete and the lines of tar used to patch cracks are close together and a few look almost new.

A cough turns 76’s attention back to the man behind him.

146 is holding the tablet out to him. The image on it has changed from the map of the compound maze to a map of the road with a ‘You Are Here’ pin and a moving purple dot.

76 glances up at his partner and comes to stand at his side when a message pops up on the screen.

‘ _Sorry about that stagnant map I gave you. Couldn’t risk sending transmissions to you while you guys where in the compound. I see you two found the highway pretty fast. That makes my life way easier._ ’

The two hitmen exchange glances before turning back to the new message that popped up on the screen.

‘ _There is a car coming to pick the two of you up. They are friendly even though they don’t look like it. They’ll set you two up and get you everything you need. I’ll be in touch.’_

The messages disappeared and the skull shape from before faded into the center and spun before vanishing again.

“So we just wait?” 146 stuttered indignantly as he glared at the map. The dot was pulsing at the edge of the screen.

“Unless you want to go for another jog, I guess we do,” 76 said flatly. He walked over to a boulder and sat on it, leaning forward and letting the water on his headpiece roll down his jaw and drip to the ground instead of into his jacket.

146 glared at 76 and stayed planted next to the road watching the dot on the screen. His usually pristine outfit was soaked two shades darker, his boots where coated in mud and grass, and his ponytail was starting to droop. He looked how they both felt.

They waited.

After what seemed like an eternity, a set of lights appeared in the distance.

76 and 146 retreated away from the road, just outside the tree line and waited as a long black hovercar pulled up. On the front passenger door sat a logo of a square balanced on edge over two parallel lines.

76 sucked in a sharp breath once he recognized the symbols. 146 shifted uneasily next to him.

The HAI Corporation: the leading developers of artificial intelligence. The corporation came into existence shortly after the end of the Omnic Crisis and bought out straggling Omnica factories. Despite the controversy surrounding them, the corporation continued to design, refine, and build omnics.

Headed by Solomon Wantori, the HAI Corporation has also made ground breaking discoveries about the human mind and how it works. They have set new standards in the psychology field and in the robotics world.

They recently have started a partnership with the Russian robotics company, Volskaya Industries. It didn’t sit right with many people but the advances they have made are unprecedented.

The hitmen tense as the door pops open. 76 places his hand over his side arm as he watches a short woman exit the car.

“You two must be the infamous hitmen, Soldier:76 and Okami:146. I am Madison Maddox,” she said as she drew closer to the pair, “We are here to bring you to our facility in Flashpoint.”

Madison turned and both men flinched as the light from the car caught on what looks to be a metal endo skeleton peeking out from a large hole torn in the side of her face.

“Why should we go with you?” 146 growled as 76 pulled out his gun.

Madison gave them a dead stare before she burst into a fit of laugher, “What other choice do you have? The next town is thirty miles away and you just blew up a formidable chunk of a Society compound,” she snorted, “Here, let’s pretend that they don’t find you and drag you back for extreme punishment and complete reprocessing. If you make it to the town without getting eaten by a bear, what will you do? Your identities are compromised. No one will help two well-known killers. You’ll die in the gutter or in the woods.”

76 lowers his side arm even as 146 starts to growl again. She’s right. The identities of those who were made into hitmen aren’t secret. Catalogs full of hitmen profiles were readily available to anyone who wanted to review them.

While most people wouldn’t outright attack them and the police couldn’t really do anything because of the conditions hitmen worked under; it was a huge risk being in public.

He sighed before holstering his gun and grabbing 146 by the sleeve. The shorter man hissed but did not struggle as 76 tugged him closer to the hover car.

“Wise choice,” Madison cooed as she opened the rear door for her passengers to get in.

146 pushed 76 roughly into the back before roughly sliding across the leather seat with his bow between his knees. Madison slid into the front next to the hulking man driving.

He looked like he could have crushed the car with them in it if he wanted to.

\--

Several hours passed, the rain eventually slowed and the thunder rolled less often. The car remained mostly silent aside from Madison checking in with the facility they were headed to.

76 dropped in and out of a light doze. A headache was building behind his eyes and the nausea was getting worse as time went on.

146 on the other hand sat straight in his seat with his eyes never wavering from the windshield. His bow was secure in his hands unlike 76’s rifle which was pinned between the driver side door and his knee.

Finally, a cityscape began to rise from the horizon. A black obelisk of a facility loomed closer until they pulled into the parking lot.

Madison and the driver, Mulligan, exited and opened the doors for the hitmen. Mulligan ended up having to half carry 76 to the sliding glass doors where a man in a suit and a pair of doctors waited in light purple scrubs.

The man peered at them through half lidded eyes. He seemed to be chewing on the back of one of the two piercings that sat under his bottom lip. Once he seemed satisfied with the newcomers he nodded and walked off without a word. The shorter male doctor grimaced at the suit before turning back and giving the hitmen a nervous smile.

“Uh- Welcome to the HAI Corporation mental care division. I am Lauren Jacobs and this is Dr. Wantori,” he gestured to the person next to him, causing his already crooked glasses to slide down his nose.

Dr. Wantori was of an average height; her hair was styled into an undercut with the top bleached white and a piercing sat under her lower lip. 76 was bothered by her eyes, they were hyper focused on him as though she could see into him.

“-so I’ll have you follow me this way.”

76 shook his head to clear his thoughts as Jacobs led 146 down a hall with Madison. When 76 went to follow, Mulligan held him tight and turned to Dr. Wantori.

“You’ll be with me,” she said, her voice ringing slightly in the empty white halls, “Mulligan, you are dismissed. I will guide our new guest to the med bay.”

Mulligan shot her a wary look before releasing 76 and heading down the hall the others had left through. 76 watched him leave before turning back to the doctor.

He jumped slightly when he saw how close she had managed to get to him. Her bright smile also caught him off guard as she grabbed his wrist and tugged him down another corridor towards and elevator.

“Where are we going?”

“Med bay. I’m under the assumption that the Society fitted you with a tracking chip at the very least. I just wish I had up to date files on you, but I doubt they cared enough to keep anything like that on you.”

76 snorted at the dry humor in the doctor’s voice before partially unzipping his jacket and pulling out the now damp and bent files. He stumbled a little when she stopped to snag the files out of his hands. A mischievous smile broke across her face as she leafed through the papers.

“Oh. I like you already,” she hummed before leading them into an elevator. She hit the bottom button and scanned her badge on the reader.

Dr. Wantori flipped through his files. The rapidly dropping elevator sent his head spinning so fast he tripped into the wall and held onto the railing for dear life.

“C’mon,” she encouraged as she slid her shoulder under his arm and her arm around his waist, “You can do it, big guy, I bet you’ve had worse.”

She wasn’t wrong but that didn’t stop the room from spinning violently under him. It was a miracle that she managed to drag him into the lab and onto the medical table.

He watched as the doctor walked around the room to grab various supplies before setting them on the table with him and turning to flip through the pages of his records again.

She hummed to herself and her eyebrows knitted together in concern, “You’re a little fucked up, aren’t you?”

This startled a sharp bark of laughter from 76 which earned him another dry smile before she picked up a hand scanner and ran it over his chest.

“A little fucked up is an understatement.”

“So it would seem. I’ll have you take of everything above the waist, now,” she chuckled as she pulled out a scalpel and gauze.

76 complied and held still as she cut into the barcode that was tattooed under his left collar bone. She pulled out a small metal chip from the incision before gluing the cut together and bandaging it.

“You can call me Stef by the way.”

76 turned his head to look at what was now three different Stefs, “…Jack,” he slurred.

Stef smiled and crawled up on the table so she was kneeling next to him. She checked over the seams of his headpiece, trying to find the tiny catches to release the visor and mask. With a small sound of victory, she popped the releases and pulled the front pieces off.

He wasn’t too much to look at right now. The circle under his eyes were probably dark, the scars across his face felt agitated, and his eyes where unfocused and unmoving.

 “Oh. Can you see right now?”

“Not really, my eyes are useless. The implants give me blurred vision and the visor clears everything up.”

“Ah,” Stef said as she slid back onto the floor and backed the visor pieces and set them with his jacket, “I don’t want to do too much else with you right now. I can see you’re really struggling right now.”

76 made a strained noise of confirmation as Stef helped him to his feet. He swayed uneasily and gagged as his nausea came back full force.

Together they stumbled and swayed down the hall. Everything started to blur as the doors passed. He tripped and blacked out.

When he woke up again he was laying on something incredibly soft with a very heavy blanket over him. The room was still spinning but a hand holding onto his anchored him down.

Two sets of glowing green and purple eyes watched him in silence for a moment as he struggled to lift his head. The higher set of purple blinked and said something unintelligible before turning and leaving.

Stef leaned over and whispered something to 76 before a needle entered his arm and the world went dark once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know you caught the blatantly obvious Hamilton references. Don't lie to me. I do best when creating characters to have some kind of guide for them. Solomon is actually a humanized transformer design I made :0
> 
> The real story should be out soon so fingers crossed!

**Author's Note:**

> Your comments and kudos are much appreciated. You all are great.


End file.
